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A world of 7 billion

Shegufta Yasmin
THE world's population is now more than 6.8 billion. According to the United Nations Population Division, on October 31,2011, world population will reach 7 billion; this global milestone presents a major challenge in front of us.
Whether we can live together on a healthy planet will depend on what measures we are taking. Therefore, on World Population Day, UNFPA launched a global campaign called 7 Billion Actions to create a more just and sustainable world. This year's theme of World Population Day was "Calling Attention to Urgent Global Issues".
Currently about 83 million people are added to global population each year, increasing demand for natural resources and putting increased pressure on our planet. While poverty, inequality and increased stress on resources represent major challenges, the world is more interconnected than ever before, creating enormous possibilities.
Reducing inequities and improving living standards for people alive today -- as well as for generations to follow - - will require new ways of thinking and unprecedented global cooperation.
Between 1960 and 2010, the world population rose from 3 billion to 6.8 billion. In other words, there has been more growth in population in the last fifty years than the previous 2 million years that humans have existed. Currently the rate of population increase is 1.2% per year, which means the planet's human population is on a trajectory to double again in 58 years. According to the UN Population Division, world population will reach 8 billion by 2025,9 billion by 2043, and then 10 billion by2083. If world population is stabilized between 8 and 9 billion, a scenario which becomes less likely with each passing day, the increase to human population will still be between 20% and 30%.
The extreme growth in human population — now counted by an additional billion people every 12 to 13 years — is mortally taxing the Earth and its resources. Each individual person has a unique impact on the planet's environment. Each person needs basic resources and almost all people desire to utilize significantly more resources than are required by their basic needs. As these needs and aspirations are multiplied by a factor of 6.8 billion, day after day and year after year, the stability of the planet's ecosphere will continue to be severely compromised.
The world’s 1.8 billion young people can contribute new ideas and approaches for solving our problems. 600 million adolescent girls have the potential to change our world. If every girl today could stay in school, have the number of children she desires, and live free from gender-based violence and discrimination, we would see an end to child marriage, improved health for children and families and women taking their rightful place in society.
Empowerment of girls and women is an important step towards eradicating poverty and stabilising population growth. Reproductive health and rights -- including the right to freely and responsibly determine the number, spacing and timing of children without coercion, discrimination and violence — are cornerstones of women's empowerment and sustainable development.
Everyday 1,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. These deaths can be prevented.
Half of the world's populations are below the age of 25. In 57 increasing countries, above 40 percent of the inhabitants are considered under the age of 15. Approximately 3 billion young people and children are of reproductive age. In spite of late marriage in a lot of countries, about 82 million girls who are about 10 to 17 years, marry before the age of 18. Pregnancy is the main reason of death for young girls aged 15 to 19 years worldwide. Complications of childbirth and risky abortion are the major factors.
The Earth is attempting to impose its own checks on human population in the form of widespread disease and the emergence of new disease strains, food and water shortages, poor harvests and violent and destructive weather caused by climate change. When we look forward to the next 40 years, the most significant population increases will take place in the areas of our world where natural resources and the infrastructure of modernity are already the scarcest. 95 % of human population growth is occurring in countries already struggling with poverty, illiteracy and civil unrest.
Currently Bangladesh's population is 150,857,000 which is 2.18% of total world population. We, the Bangladeshis are suffering every minute for our over population. As this planet is in severe risk, in the same way we are in more risk. Our environment is brutally injured for our over population.
Population growth is not the only threat facing humanity, but it will be a major contributor to the crises that await us and the planet in the coming century. Overpopulating the planet puts us all at risk of extreme environmental and social consequences that we are beginning to witness today.
The writer Is a Senior Lecturer, Department of English, ASA University Bangladesh.